Easy DIY adjustable shelves using a shelf pin jig, shelf pins, and plywood that you can make for any cabinet.
Aren’t adjustable shelves the best!?!
I mean, I realize that there are much more important things in the world.
But shelves that adjust to the height that you need are one of the simple things that make my life easier.
It’s so frustrating when I’m trying to organize stuff on shelves and it’s too tall to fit.
I’m so in love with adjustable shelves that I made a macramé shelf that adjusts!
And whenever I build cabinets and furniture, I always make sure to add adjustable shelving, like the shoe storage cabinet that I built for my entryway.
Video – How to make Adjustable Shelves in Cabinets
Recently I have been working on turning a small closet in our little bohemian camper into a pantry. Which definitely calls for adjustable shelving!
When I made over our camper several years ago, I got so tired of painting every surface in the place that I never finished the insides of the cabinets and closets.
I’ve just been stuffing anything that will fit into them. And I can never find what I’m looking for. And stuff is always falling out onto the floor when I open the cabinets up.
Now that we have been using the camper for a few years I have finally figured out what I want to have in the storage areas. So I’ve decided to make one of the closets into a pantry to organize dishes and kitchen stuff.
I’m going to use the same trick that I use in cabinets that I build from scratch to update this cabinet with adjustable shelves using the Kreg shelf pin jig, shelf pins, and plywood.
Table of Contents
How to make your own adjustable cabinet shelves
Over the past several years, I’ve found one of the easiest ways to make shelves adjustable inside cabinets and furniture is to drill holes in the interior sides of the cabinets for metal pins to go. Then you can just move the pins, up and down, to the level you want the shelf to be and the shelf rests on top of the pins wherever you move them.
Supplies
- Drill
- Kreg 5mm Shelf Pin Jig
- Measuring tape
- Kreg Accu-cut saw track
- Circular saw
- Shelf pins
- Plywood
Step 1: Drill holes for shelf pins
The first thing I did to make adjustable shelves inside this cabinet was drill holes using a Kreg shelf pin jig.
Follow the instructions in the package to correctly set the drilling depth by tightening the collar provided onto the drill bit. This will ensure that you drill only as deep into the side of the cabinet as you need to for the depth of the shelf pin and not all the way through the cabinet.
I did not use the fence that Kreg provides because it wasn’t appropriate for this application.
You don’t need to start drilling holes at the very bottom of the cabinet. You will, most likely, want a little room in-between your shelves. But you also want the holes that you drill in the front and back and left and right of the cabinet to be at the same heights.
So, grab a piece of wood that you can rest the jig on. This wood will be used as a spacer between the bottom of the cabinet and the bottom of the Kreg jig. And use that same piece of wood (same height) to start each of your rows of holes. This will ensure that the front and back, left and right vertical rows of holes that you are drilling start at the same spot and therefore are equal, assuring that your shelf will be even at the end.
Once you drill your first (bottom hole) push the indexing pin, that Kreg gives you, through that hole to keep it stable while you drill the rest of the holes in the jig.
Then, when you have drilled all of the holes in the jig, lift the jig and move it up to the top of the holes you just drilled, pushing the indexing pin in the top hole, you just drilled, to stabilize it.
Make sure you are holding the jig straight when drilling the holes to keep them even with the holes you will be drilling in the other three spots in the cabinet. I used the face frame on the front of the cabinet and the wall on the back of the cabinet to hold it against tightly since I had no way of using a clamp to hold the jig in place.
You don’t have to drill holes all the way to the top, just as high as you want your top shelf to be.
Tips for success using the Kreg shelf pin jig:
- Use clamps if able or hold the jig straight up and down, don’t let it slide or your holes will be off.
- Use clamps, the Kreg fence provided, the front or back of the cabinet, or a piece of wood spacer to hold the jig in the same spot left to right
Step 2: Measure and cut plywood for your adjustable shelves
Next, I measured the interior width and depth of the cabinet to determine what size I needed to cut my plywood shelves.
Then I used my circular saw and Kreg Accu cut to cut my plywood to those sizes.
Keep in mind that if you use bracket style shelf pins like the ones I used, you will need to account for approximately 1/8 inch that they stick out into the cabinet. So, you will need to subtract 1/8 inch from the width measurement of the cabinet when cutting your shelving.
I used some old scraps of plywood that I had laying around for this project because I was just putting it in my old camper.
If I were making these for a cabinet for the inside of my home I would use 3/4-inch Purebond birch plywood.
Honestly, at this point you are done. You have made adjustable shelves for your cabinet!
All you have to do is insert the shelf pins into the holes at the height you want your shelf to sit at in the cabinet.
And slide your shelves into the cabinet to sit on top of the shelf pins.
To make my old camper cabinet look more presentable I completed the steps below.
Step 3: Diy adjustable shelves finishing touches
Because my cabinet interior and shelves did not match, I primed and painted everything white.
Then, I just decided what I wanted to put on each shelve and adjusted the shelf pins and shelves to the exact height I wanted so everything would fit perfectly!
I also plan on applying clear shelf liner to the shelves to prevent any accidental staining of the white paint from the objects sitting on the shelves.
I’m so glad I finally finished the inside of this camper closet and made adjustable shelves for it! It’s so nice to have an organized area to store the things we use often when we are at the camper.
And when my family is looking for dishes or kitchen accessories I can tell them right where to easily find it.
I hope you are having a great summer and getting to do things that make you happy.
Thanks for visiting!
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